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Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 35 Location: NW PA

Gentleman, I am the new owner of an antique 16 ga. reloading kit. It contains the following:

-Roll Crimping Tool - No maker's marks that I can find.

-Powder & Shot Measure - Marked B.G.I. Co. PAT Feb 25 1890.

-Primer Seating Tool - No marks that I can find...one handle broken off.

-Wooden Depriming Tool with base.

-Funnel Sizing Chamber for filling with powder, wads, & Shot.

-Wad Cutter - Marked 16

-One oak cleaning rod w/ brass threads and an old bronze brush

Can this be used safely to reload current hulls? If so how does it work?
I'm looking for any information that you can provide.

Thanks for all the help!

Guest

Yes Swede it can be used to reload modern plastic hulls but you are going to have to trim the case mouth back to give you about a 2 9/16th overall hull length. This will eliminate the old case mouth and give you about the same internal dimensions as the folded crimp hull.

You will need some 16 gauge over shot cards which can be purchased from "Circle Fly". They are on the web. Everything else is pretty standard. If you already have a 16 gauge re loader I recommend that you use the de-prime and re-size station and the primer seating station to deprime, re-size and prime the hulls, you can also measure and drop the powder, insert the wad and drop the shot, however, if you want to use all of your tools weigh the recommended powder charge on a good powder scale and put it in the powder dipper. Adjust the dipper until the powder charge is flush with mouth of the dipper. Dip and weigh several powder charges to make sure you are getting an accurate reading. After you have adjusted the powder dipper mark it so you will know where you need to set the dipper the next time you plan to reload. add powder to the hulls you have resized and primed, you can seat the wad with the dowel that shold have accompanied your set. Next adjust your shot weight the same way you adjusted the powder charge. Put the shot into the hull. Place an overshot card on top of the shot, you should have about 3/16th of an inch from the top of the overshot card to the case mouth, if you have more you will need to use a filler like puffed wheat or rice, if you have less you will need to reduce the amount of shot or use a shorter wad. Prep the roll crimp tool by using a small amount of light grease on the inside of the crimper, fasten the roll crimp tool to a sturdy table or board held in a vise. Insert the hull into the tool making sure that the case mouth goes up inside the crimper. Apply upward pressure on the swing arm handle while cranking the crimper handle. You will have to experiment with how much pressure is required because hulls are not all the same and require different amounts of force to turn over the case mouth and seal the overshot card.

Sounds like a lot of work and truthfully it is but then again where can you find roll crimped shell these days.

Member Joined: 06 Oct 2007 Posts: 2350 Location: West MI

Here's another suggestion that might help; try heating the crimping tool head up with a bic lighter or small torch for a few seconds. Roll crimping a plastic hull requires a certain amount of heat to build up through friction to soften the plastic. I've never tried hand rolling plastic hulls but applying a little heat to the tool in my drill press helps alot. Once there is a batch of hulls ready to crimp the tool should retain a certain amount of heat so you can keep rolling without having to preheat every time. Just my 2cents worth, good luck. Mike

Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 35 Location: NW PA

This is exactly what I hoped for. I will be cleaning up the items in the kit being careful to not remove any of the original paint and will continue to look for any maker's marks. I hope to post pictures of the clean kit and the roll crimp it produces.

Thanks again for the help.

The reloads will feed the following 16's:
Remington 11-48
Remington 31
Ranger sxs

Guest

Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 38 Location: Ohio

I have one in 16 ga & 12 ga. The 3/16" of available hull after the overshot card is placed in the hull is critical, also the upward pressure on the swing arm along with a polished and heated hand powered roll crimper. I used a brass polish to shine the roll crimper, it worked better after polishing the brass component. The finished product is nice, but takes a little worthwhile effort.

Joined: 20 Apr 2008 Posts: 35 Location: NW PA

I did clean it up a little w/ the usual gun cleaning solvents. I have yet to reload anything. The shot/powder dipper is locked up in the fully compressed position; thats been the latest project. I am attempting to not destroy it...

Guest

What have you been soaking it in? I have found a commercial penetrating product named Creep sold at O'Riley's auto parts store to work pretty well on corroded steel parts.